Coincidences

Ameia sat up, throwing the large black and white comforter from her body. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes with one hand, and yawned slightly as she reached for the gold locket that hung from her neck. Her hand found nothing but air. She gasped and looked down in surprise, reaching for the locket once more. What? Where is it? She thought frantically as she began to hyperventilate. I couldn't have lost it. No, there's no way-. Her thoughts were cut off as her roommate entered the dorm room they shared and slammed the door, muttering furiously. Ameia glanced over at the girl and held her hand to her chest, as if she were clutching the locket, the very thing she had done since she received it in fifth grade.

He had smiled at her as he fastened the necklace around her neck. Of course her nervous grin had not disappeared throughout the entire endeavors. She glanced up at him, blushing as she took in his nearly five-foot frame. Even then she had been a diminutive girl, standing at only four feet five inches at the most. He, Sebastian grinned back, and turned tomato red before waving spastically at her and running away to play freeze tag with his friends. Of course the group of girls who she had then called her friends oohed and ahhed at the shiny heart shaped locket that hung on the gold filigree chain. Before the inevitable playful teasing began. "Amei and Sebby sitting in a tree." The girls chanted in unison as they formed a loose ring around her and began to spin.. "k-i-s-s-i-n-g!" Ameia laughed at their antics and shook her head at the girls. "Oh be quiet" she replied jokingly. "Its not like that, Its from my…"

Ameia was jolted from her memories by a loud snore from the opposite side of the room where her roommate had crashed upon her checkered bedspread. As she breathed in the delectable scent of a fruity perfume her roommate must have purchased. Ameia stood, and pulled on a pair of decrepit yoga pants that had been heaped in the corner of the room. She proceeded to shuffle through the door, her feet shod in a pair of worn old flip-flops. The door slammed behind her, causing her roommate to groan at the commotion.

The musty scent of ancient books flooded her nostrils when she rushed through the library door. Ameia looked around, seeing no one she alighted upon the spot she and Sebastian, her stepbrother had inhabited earlier that day. It has to be here, she thought frantically, as she dropped to her knees in search of the item. Her eyes scanned the floor for any hint of the chain, or the locket it's self. She reached blindly under the table to feel for the necklace, thinking all the while, I had it earlier, where could it be? I was here all day! She crawled under the table reaching further, feeling the rough carpet of the library under her sensitive fingertips, but not the smooth cool surface of the locket, nor the smooth segments of the chain she used to keep it near to her heart. Two fat tears began to leak from her eyes, she wiped them away hurriedly then curled into a ball and fell into a troubled sleep.

Ameia was roughly shaken awake. While she slowly opened her bleary eyes she smelled the familiar scent of Axe and Baby powder. She managed a weak smile at her stepbrother Sebastian, who was grinning at her happily. "Lose something?" He asked, holding the locket up by its black and gold chain. "You gotta be more careful little sis." He continued, pulling her out from under the desk, before fastening it securely around her neck. "What would you do without me?"

Ameia sighed with happiness as the locket settled against her chest, and slumped against the desk. "Thanks Seb." She whispered, her voice hoarse from the wrenching sobs that had bound her to the spot. "Where was it?"

"Right here you silly goose." He ruffled her hair and grinned at her, as if saying "You idiot you could have asked me." A distant shout that sounded faintly as if someone was calling for him echoed throughout the library. "Hey kiddo I have to go, but you make sure you don't lose that again you hear?" With that final sentiment he stood and sauntered from the library.

"Things never change do they?" Ameia thought as she picked herself up off the ground. "He's still the same old Seb, who helps me out…thank the goddess for little things like that." She grasped the locket in a single fluid movement, and clicked it open revealing the picture inside. "Yeah, thank the goddess for the little things."